


The Stars Are Going Out

by quantumtardis



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 08:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16950387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumtardis/pseuds/quantumtardis
Summary: Missing scene from The Name of the Doctor.





	The Stars Are Going Out

Clara walked between the desks of her students. She’d had to confiscate Leela’s spitball-shooting pen and Tegan’s paper plane, but Harry had begun to concentrate on his own work rather than steal glances at Martha’s, and Susan had stopped looking out the window. Everything seemed to be going smoothly in class, so why did she feel so unnerved?

Almost in answer, the world shook. When Clara looked around her, all the students had gone. Somehow knowing what was about to happen, she closed her eyes and fell to her knees, making that point of contact with the ground her anchor, and hoped it would be enough to stop her being swept away along with everything else. She could hear the howls of time tear apart what had been her little peaceful enclave in that place. When she opened her eyes, nothing of the classroom remained. It was all black and empty, like the sky of Trenzalore when the stars had started to go out.

And then Clara remembered where she really was.

Clara didn’t know whether mere minutes had passed since she had jumped into the Doctor’s timeline, or an eternity. When she tried to think about it, the cacophony of her thousands of other lives overwhelmed her, leaving her no other option but to forget. Already, she barely remembered her students, but she did miss them. She wished she wasn’t so alone.

“Hi, any idea where we are?”

Clara looked up to see who had spoken: a blonde girl about the same age as her, in a blue leather jacket. The two of them were the only things in the darkness.

“Who are you?” Clara breathed out.

“Who are you?” she replied, frowning.

And Clara gave her the only answer that she knew in that moment.

"My name is Clara Oswald. I’m here to save the Doctor… to stop the stars from going out.”

The girl stifled a gasp, clearly taken aback.

“The Doctor? Where is he?”

“He’s all around us, I entered his timeline. And I…” The words stuck in Clara’s throat as there came a sudden rush of memories. At first it was a relief, like the pleasant cold shock when as a child she would run into the water at the beach at Blackpool. But more kept piling on that were beyond her comprehension; waves were crashing over her, pulling her under, and she’d waded too deep…

"Clara, what is it?”

“I’m… everywhere, in every moment, all at once. I don’t know where I begin or end, I don’t…”

The girl’s eyes widened for an instant before she contained herself, biting her lip. She knelt and steadied Clara’s trembling hands with her own.

“Listen to me. I know it’s hard, with parts of you scattered throughout time and space, but you can’t forget who you are right here and now.”

Such was the conviction in her voice and the warmth of her hands that Clara felt a surge of courage, drowning out the chaos in her mind by repeating: I’m Clara Oswald. I have to save the Doctor. I’m Clara Oswald… But after a few seconds, she stopped with a shudder.

“Every time I try to hold on to something, I lose it,” Clara explained. “It’s like trying to swim upstream.”

“Then hold on to me, and I’ll bring you to the shore,” came the reply, with a smile like sunshine.

“Who..?”

“My name is Rose. And together we’ll get out of this, Clara.”

Rose pulled Clara to her feet and lead her away. “I’ll take you to where I materialized, it’s bound to be near the entrance. That way, when the Doctor comes back for you, and he will, he’ll find you at once.”

“And you?”

“I’ll leave the same way I came. I’ve hit the right universe, now I just need the right timeline. The stars are going out, and I’m trying to stop it too.”

Clara felt the temporal currents start pulling at her. Same as when I entered, she suddenly remembered, the memory growing stronger. Now all she had to do was let herself be carried along.

“Thank you, Rose. I don’t know if I’ll remember you.” She felt like crying.

“Just remember who you are, Clara Oswald. Good luck.”

“And you.”

The two travellers shared a last, lingering look of mutual respect, for all the strange paths they had walked alone, before they disappeared to destinations only they would ever know.


End file.
